Adding Reagents in iExperiment

In the video tutorial below, we demonstrate how to add and delete reagents to and from a record in our enterprise electronic notebook, iExperiment. Reagents are one of the five material types that are supported in iExperiment. The others are Samples, Equipment, Consumables and Animals. Reagents and equipment are more complicated than simple materials like consumables and samples, because they have components. Like all materials, reagents are shared, so a reagent created in one record can be easily added to another record.

In addition, we will show how to add and delete properties of materials. A property is a datum associated with a material, such as conductivity of a buffer.

A transcript of the video can be found below.

Tutorial Transcript: Adding Reagents in iExperiment

Hi, and welcome to Colabrativ’s demonstration on how to add and delete reagents to a record in iExperiment’s electronic notebook.
We will start our demonstration logged into an in-progress record of our fictitious user, Tes Turing.
In order to add reagents, we need to first add a Reagents subsection to the Materials section.
Click on the add “Reagents” button in the navigation tree.
Both reagents and equipment can have components.
An example of a simple reagent would be sodium chloride, whereas a typical buffer would contain multiple components.
The principle distinction between a parent reagent and its components is that the parent has a quantity, either a weight or volume, whereas the components have concentrations.
Let’s start by adding a buffer with two components.
We start by opening the Reagents add-content panel by clicking on the green arrow on the right hand side of the record, below the Reagents banner.
The Reagents add-content panel has two buttons: “Add Text” and “Add Reagent”. Click on the “Add Reagent” button.
Because we are describing a mixture with components, the first “Add Reagent” dialog box should be used to describe the mixture.
Although there is a lot of information that can be supplied for a reagent, only name, supplier and quantity are required.
If this buffer was prepared by a supplier, and if the supplier has a web page on this buffer, then the URL of that web page could be copied into the reagent URL box.
Any relevant web page can be linked to a reagent by adding its URL to the Reagent URL box.
A reagent supplier is required, so we will use “Internal”. A department name could also have been used.
A quantity is required.
Because this is a buffer, we will add a pH, and indicate that it’s a liquid.

After completing the reagent information, click the “Add” button.

In addition to the reagent information we supplied, a green add-component button and a red delete button have been added to the right corner of the displayed reagent box.
Like most red buttons in iExperiment, the delete button deletes the reagent and its components.
As with adding equipment, the green add-component button is used to add components to a reagent.
Let’s add the first component, the buffering agent Tris.
The reagent oracle has found an existing incident of Tris.
This time instead of adding the quantity, we are now asked for the concentration of the component.
If you add the PubChem ID to a reagent, then the PubChem number will be linked to the PubChem page for that chemical.
After completing the reagent component information, click the “Add” button.
Let’s check the PubChem ID link.
It’s not surprising to see that there is another name for Tris.

Let’s add the second component, Sodium Chloride.
You can remove a component by clicking on its red delete button.
As the warning states, “Once the Reagent is deleted, it’s gone forever.”
The component is removed after you click on the “Delete” button in the dialog box.
You can completely remove a reagent and all of its components, by clicking on the red delete button at the top-right of the displayed reagent box.

Once a reagent has been created, it can easily be added to another record.
We have created another record with an empty reagents section.

We can now add the buffer we created to this record, by opening an “Add Reagent” dialog box.
If you start typing in the reagent name box, the reagent oracle will find reagent names that match.
Simply click on the one you want, or keep typing.
Click on the “Add” button to add the reagent.
Note that the complete reagent, including its components, is added to the record.

Reagent material properties are associated with reagents, but not with their components.
Clicking on the green add “Properties” button will display the “Add Property” dialog box.
Fill in the property information.
If a portion of an existing property name matches what you have typed into the property name box, iExperiment will display a list of similar property names.
Simply click on the one you want to use, or keep on typing.
Click on the “Okay” button to add the property.
A property can be deleted by clicking on the red delete button to its right.

As the warning states, “Once the Reagent Property is deleted, it’s gone forever.”
Click on the “Delete” button to remove the property.

Please visit our companion web pages with accompanying videos for instructions on adding other materials, such as samples, equipment or consumables.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at www.colabrativ.com.

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